Favoriting Techtonic with Mark Hurst: Playlist from July 23, 2018 Favoriting

Mark Hurst's avatar View Mark Hurst's profile Favoriting

Conversations with creators and thinkers who are charting the way forward in a tech-saturated society. Tech, community, video games, and whatever else is next.

Monday 6 - 7pm (EDT) | On WFMU | 91.1, 90.1, 91.9 FM & wfmu.org
WFMU LIVE Audio Streams (Get help):   Pop-up  |  128k AAC  |  128k MP3  |  32k MP3

iTunes Feed Also available as an MP3 podcast. More info at our Podcast Central page.

<-- Previous playlist | Back to Techtonic with Mark Hurst playlists | Next playlist -->


Upcoming events:

Mon. Mar 18th, 6pm - 7pm: Ian Johnson on China's underground historians (More info...)
Mon. Mar 25th, 6pm - 7pm: Lily Wen guest hosts Techtonic

Favoriting July 23, 2018: Paul Ford, from Ftrain and Postlight, live in-studio

Listen to this show: Pop-up listen Pop-up player!



This week: Paul Ford, author, programmer and internet entrepreneur, live in-studio.

More info about Paul's work:

@ftrain, Paul's Twitter feed

Ftrain, Paul's blog

Postlight, digital agency where Paul is CEO

This American Life segment about how Paul created a web server to help him live with his anxiety

What Is Code?, Paul's award-winning BusinessWeek piece from 2015

Recent tech news:

Kara Swisher's interview with Mark Zuckerberg (Recode, July 18), which I'll try to cover in more depth next week, time allowing. But it's the basis for the piece below...

Cloud Cover and Natalie Portman, a must-read from Scott Galloway (July 20): Examining the ill-advised statements from three billionaires last week - or at least, two billionaires and one who claims to be. I won't cover the latter - you can read the article yourself - but the other two are Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Musk made an insane attack on one of the Thai-cave rescue heroes, because said hero didn't praise Musk's submarine. (Musk later posted an online apology.) And on Zuck: "Facebook has turned to their playbook of delay and obfuscation, and refuses to cool the echo chambers of misinformation, as it profits from them. It would be nice to believe that the third-wealthiest person in the world and an executive who’s written eloquently about work-life balance for women and personal loss would have more concern for the commonwealth, and society writ large. But they have not demonstrated this. Their defensiveness is dangerous blather crafted by the army of PR execs at Facebook. To be fair, they’re no better or worse than tobacco executives claiming, “Tobacco is not addictive” or search execs professing, “Information wants to be free.” They have all lied to buttress their wealth, full stop... This will continue to happen unless we, American citizens, elect people who have the domain expertise to hold Big Tech to the same scrutiny we apply to other firms. We don’t even need new regulation to break them up, but just to enforce the current regulations on media firms. Which. They. Are."

What Mark Zuckerberg doesn't get: Facebook is amplifying hate by letting conspiracy theorists sell their wares (NY Daily News op-ed by Joan Donovan and Brian Friedberg, July 20): "The outbreak of public organizing and violence by white supremacists relies on the infrastructure Facebook provides to connect to new audiences. Holocaust deniers are an important group in that network."

WhatsApp will drastically limit forwarding across the globe to stop the spread of fake news, following violence in India and Myanmar (Recode, July 19): "The rapid spread of misinformation online, often over WhatsApp, has also resulted in killings in countries like Myanmar and Sri Lanka."

Why Is Google Translate Spitting Out Sinister Religious Prophecies? "Google Translate is moonlighting as a deranged oracle—and experts say it’s likely because of the spooky nature of neural networks." This is true, see below...





• Oh, and as for this, from The Verge (July 20) - How to hear (and delete) every conversation your Google Home has recorded - a great way to avoid Google Home surveillance is not to buy a Google Home surveillance device. There's your tech tip for the day.

- - -

Subscribe to the Techtonic podcast

Artist Track Album Images Approx. start time
  Paul Ford, live in-studio. Also, Google Translate goes haywire and talks about the Doomsday clock.
Tomaš Dvořák  Game Boy Tune   Favoriting Machinarium Soundtrack 
Favoriting
 
  Mark's intro    
Favoriting
 
7  Interview with Paul Ford   Favoriting  
Favoriting
0:18:23 (Pop-up)
  Your calls and comments 201-209-9368    
Favoriting
0:37:03 (Pop-up)
The Cow Goes Moo  Oh Ford!   Favoriting Super Spongiform People 
Favoriting
0:54:50 (Pop-up)


<-- Previous playlist | Back to Techtonic with Mark Hurst playlists | Next playlist -->

RSS feeds for Techtonic with Mark Hurst: RSSPlaylists feed | RSSMP3 archives feed

| E-mail Mark Hurst | Other WFMU Playlists | All artists played by Techtonic with Mark Hurst |

Listen on the Internet | Contact Us | Music & Programs | WFMU Home Page | Support Us | FAQ

Live Audio Streams for WFMU: Pop-up | 128k AAC | 128k MP3 | 32k MP3    (More streams: [+])


Listener comments!

Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:02pm
ultradamno:

Hello Mark, Techtonadoes!
Avatar 6:03pm
geezerette:

Howdy!
  6:03pm
melinda:

Hi Techtons
  6:03pm
listener james from westwood:

Howdy, Mark and all! Paul Ford = O.G.!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:04pm
Rich in Washington:

bloop
Avatar 🤖 6:04pm
Bas NL:

Mark! Techtonerees!
Avatar 6:05pm
northguineahills:

The inset graphic by Paul is hilarious!
  6:05pm
listener james from westwood:

I am stacking my tech bad-actors bonuses by starting the book about Theranos tonight, too.
Avatar 6:06pm
geezerette:

Elon Musk is nuts.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:07pm
dale:

some spacex launch happened yesterday - he probably rushed it to garner some good press.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:08pm
queems:

elon musk sucks
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:08pm
Rich in Washington:

To be honest, I hadn't followed Musk beyond SpaceX coverage (which I find fascinating), so didn't realize what an egomaniac he is.
Avatar 6:08pm
geezerette:

The infallibility syndrome.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:08pm
queems:

mark zuckerberg also sucks
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:10pm
Fuzzy:

More like Mark FUCKERBERG, amirite?
Avatar 6:11pm
northguineahills:

that musky smell! There's a zucker born every minute.....
Avatar 6:11pm
geezerette:

Heh!
Avatar 6:11pm
TDK60:

Isn't that what it's all about, profit? If "white nationalists" are increasing in numbers, [?] there're dollars there.
  6:12pm
citrus:

mark is woke bae status. NOT zuck
  6:12pm
carrots:

right on man!!
Avatar 6:13pm
northguineahills:

Facebook and Google need to be broken up like Ma Bell (and many banks and insurers, other media companies, etc)
Avatar 6:14pm
geezerette:

Read "Atlas Shrugged" if you haven't, everybody. It's a template for the world we're in.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:15pm
geo in jc:

Facebook's Market Cap - $618 Billion.
Avatar 6:16pm
northguineahills:

@geezerette: I read it when I was 15, I'm afraid that most of it was lost upon me at the time.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:17pm
Rich in Washington:

Now we know why Alexa was laughing.
  6:17pm
ami ad:

Hello.Anybody know what google.org is about?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:18pm
queems:

business as usual
Avatar 6:18pm
northguineahills:

The Onion does better journalism then most news networks, which is scary....
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:18pm
Rich in Washington:

I read The Fountainhead when I was a teenager, because I was a masochist. And bored. The internet hadn't been invented yet.
  6:18pm
JakeGould:

OMFG!!! Doomsday Clock is three minutes at twelve We are experiencing characters and a dramatic developments in the world, which indicate that we are increasingly approaching the end times and Jesus' return
  6:18pm
JakeGould:

translate.google.com...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:19pm
queems:

jesus is a hacker
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:19pm
Michael 98145:

Sounds like the Ayn Rand original script was re-written by Philip K Dick ...
Avatar 6:19pm
geezerette:

I heard it was two minutes. Ugh, that synthetic voice.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:19pm
Rich in Washington:

I think it was the same year that I read the King James Bible, for similar reasons. I was somewhat agnostic at the time, but reading the bible knocked me off the fence to atheism.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:20pm
Rich in Washington:

@Michael 98145: and a bit of Kafka.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:21pm
Fuzzy:

Verily I say unto you: you have been pwned!
  6:21pm
JakeGould:

And this is what happens when you just type “ag” with an occasional “agag” inserted: It detects Irish and translates it as… “You are always looking forward to acting at the same time as you are at the moment of acting by acting at a while while playing dying at a while at a while at a while at a while” translate.google.com...
Avatar 6:21pm
geezerette:

Michael, fistbump!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:22pm
dale:

the only way to NOT buy a surveillance device is to not buy anything that connects to the web
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:22pm
Rich in Washington:

I can't for the life of me fathom why people want these obtrusive devices in their homes, their lives.
  6:22pm
Warren from Australia:

:-)
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:22pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

It's a techtrocity!
Avatar 6:23pm
geezerette:

@Jake, that needs a UGE fortune cookie.
Avatar 6:23pm
northguineahills:

moar dr strangelove quotes!
  6:24pm
JakeGould:

Nah, have them watch “The Sorrow and the Pity” and then watch “Harold and Maude.”
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:24pm
Rich in Washington:

Although I notice that my Android phone's camera seems to always be on. When I see all my open app windows fanned out like cards, the camera's window is displaying a random pic, taken moments before, which I didn't take and isn't in my gallery of pictures. It's tempting to put something over the lens when I'm not using it.
Avatar 6:26pm
northguineahills:

This weekend I watched Frontline episodes before going to bed. I recommend the episodes, but just not before bed *someone hold me* (Rohingya genocide and Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico specifically)
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:27pm
Michael 98145:

( i just threw away a stack of those "floppy" discs :)
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:31pm
Michael 98145:

if a bear blogs in the forest, does anyone read it ?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:32pm
melinda:

@ngh I stopped watching frontlines at night for that reason too. Good shows, bad timing.
  6:33pm
JakeGould:

Hmmm… I am more interested about why Paul Ford has that “You have mail.” prompt in the Terminal. Some cron job not being piped to “/dev/null?”

Anyway, respect to anyone who understood that.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:34pm
Michael 98145:

heh

more unix. please.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:34pm
melinda:

I was laughing out loud on my drive home at the apocalyptic Christian Google, but that's seriously creepy.
  6:35pm
listener james from westwood:

Yes! Games you can just download or install once and you’re DONE!!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:35pm
Michael 98145:

clue: go to bed with a -person-
Avatar 🤖 6:36pm
Bas NL:

Hah... still call it an 'updating'? No, no.. it's 'increasing the user experience' now.
Avatar 6:36pm
northguineahills:

I put my phone in the other room when I sleep to prevent me from turning off the alarm in my oneiric state in the morning...
Avatar 6:38pm
geezerette:

Michael, my thought exactly!
Avatar 6:40pm
northguineahills:

I can use nonsense nickels to go w/ my punkass pennies, dumbass dimes, questionable quarters, and dotard dollars.....
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:40pm
ultradamno:

Inevitable game title: Blockchain Gangsters: Decentralized Crime Unit
Avatar 6:40pm
geezerette:

Bas, so many Trojan horses!
Avatar 🤖 6:41pm
Bas NL:

;)
  6:41pm
JakeGould:

The first game I pirated was “Caverns of Mars” for the Atari 400/800 computer on cassette tape. I was the one in my group of friends who figured out you could splice two 3.5mm headphone jacks together, then connect two tape recorders together and… Et voila! Copied game on audio cassette.
Avatar 6:42pm
geezerette:

NGH, hahahaaaaa!!!
  6:42pm
JakeGould:

It’s because we somehow had some broken bootleg headphone cables and lots of free time and skills.
  6:42pm
carrots:

https://nypost.com/2018/07/23/schools-using-facial-recognition-tech-to-boost-safety/?utm_campaign=iosapp&utm_source=pasteboard_app
Avatar 6:47pm
geezerette:

!!! Nothing suggested for "me" has anything to do with me.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:49pm
Michael 98145:

"i made my wealth selling pigeon diapers"

:)
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:49pm
melinda:

Great image of hot tubbers with The Fountainhead nearby. It does seem like a dangerous ideological bubble.
Avatar 6:50pm
northguineahills:

I've also read the Fountainhead, does that mean I'm infected???
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:51pm
Michael 98145:

i hope our young peoples' future is better than i fear it will be
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:51pm
dale:

i worked in advertising. didn't make a fortune, but paid for my house upstate. i couldn't buy manhattan real estate working there or buy hudson valley real estate working there either.
  6:52pm
JakeGould:

I was in Chelsea this past week and I had to kill some time. I headed to the waterfront near the piers that are all now very well kept parks. Anyway, as I sat there it was bizarre for me to see like 2-3 people with dot-com company t-shirts on. T-shirts that looked very new. And the people looking somewhat like a mix between cult recruit or a freshman on campus.
Avatar 6:53pm
northguineahills:

When in NYC, I'm either reading an analogue book or magazine.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:54pm
dale:

..meant 'working here either.'
  6:55pm
james.vanie:

Via Ruth Tupe: what is the red pill... the antidote to this madness?
  6:55pm
JakeGould:

Huffing test papers in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” i0.wp.com...
Avatar 6:56pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

How can you be in two places @ once - when you're not anywhere @ all?
...w/ Quantum, that's how...
Avatar 6:56pm
Jeff Moore:

Solve All The Things Simultaneously Through Magic!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:56pm
melinda:

When I was visiting NY/NJ most people were plugged into devices but I did hear a pretty spicy conversation on the PATH train.
  6:57pm
JakeGould:

@JeffMoore: Where can I throw you my money?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
Michael 98145:

and the bit can be dead and alive at the same time
Avatar 6:57pm
northguineahills:

quantum computing: www.wired.com...
Avatar 🤖 6:57pm
Bas NL:

We commenteers are happy to provide content related comments. ;)
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
Folsom:

Paul Ford can be on wake and bake!
  6:57pm
JakeGould:

I heard some woman in a cafe talking loudly about her sex life a few weeks ago. It was not a great experience. THUMBS DOWN!!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:57pm
melinda:

@Jake I remember doing that.
Avatar 6:57pm
Jeff Moore:

Solve All The Things Simultaneously With Blockchain!
  6:58pm
listener james from westwood:

Thanks, Mark and Paul!
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:58pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

See you next week on Schrödinger's radio!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:58pm
melinda:

(I remember huffing test papers, not publicly discussing sex life)
Avatar 6:58pm
northguineahills:

@Ken: or not....
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 6:58pm
ultradamno:

Thanks Mark, Paul, great show.
  6:59pm
JakeGould:

Is the cat alive or dead?
Avatar 🤖 6:59pm
Bas NL:

Thanks Mark, Paul! Another great and too short hour!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:59pm
melinda:

Fun show!
Avatar 6:59pm
northguineahills:

Thanks Mark & Paul!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:59pm
Mark Hurst:

Thanks, everyone! Appreciate all your comments throughout. See you next week.
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 7:11pm
ultradamno:

Is it just me or did Cow Goes Moo swipe the baseline of Chicago's 25 or 6 to 4?
Avatar 🤖 Swag For Life Member 7:12pm
ultradamno:

...bassline (autocorrect, damnit!)
Bottom
Comment!
Name
Email
(C) 2024 WFMU. Generated by KenzoDB, written by Ken Garson